Similarity and Relationship Satisfaction - Assignment Example

Similarity and Relationship Satisfaction Introduction The marriage is declining fast. Recent researches on the values and conceptions of marriage show that adults Americans prefer cohabitation rather than being married, the institution which "lasts a lifetime". The trend of cohabitation is unprecedented in U.S. history. The recent survey results show that nearly four-in-ten (36.8%) births in the United States are to an unmarried woman. Nearly half (47%) of adults in their 30s and 40s have spent a portion of their lives in a cohabiting relationship (Pew Research Center Publication, 2007). These results reveal that majority of people view marriage as bondage that hinder their liberty or put extra responsibilities on them. Although marriage is meant to share responsibilities, ideas, happiness and grieves, and rear offspring, people view marriage quite the other way. This anti-marriage phenomenon seems to have erupted as a lack of understanding, a lack that demonstrates absence of similarity essential to sustain marriage relationship. While identification of the factors influencing marital satisfaction is of theoretical interest to social psychologists and potential practical value to clinical psychologists working with married couples, research in this area provided only minimal information about the specific characteristics of stable and/or happy marital relationships and has provided no coherent theory of marital satisfaction. Social psychological theories of love and marriage are, in general, based on the principle of similarity, i.e., that we tend to associate with others who reward us and not associate with those who don't (Walster and Walster, 1978). 2. Complementarity The theory of Complementarity proposed by Winch (1952) was based on Murray's theory of needs. The theory postulated that within a field of eligible (which necessitates a certain level of similarity) an individual will seek out the person who can offer maximum need-gratification. Specifically, Winch suggests that the need patterns of A will complementary, rather than similar to the need patterns of B. By complementary he means that the needs of A will be different in kind from those in B (Type I Complementarity) or they will be different in intensity (Type II Complementarity) from the needs that are met for B. in one of the first studies, (Winch, Ktsanes & Ktsanes, 1954) findings suggested that for a sample of married couples, individuals tend to select mates whose needs are complementary rather that similar to their own. Subsequently, Winch (1954) attempted to explore additional evidence of complementary needs while also taking into account the contradictory viewpoint of similarity of needs. By examining the correlations between husbands and wives, results showed husband-wife correlations were lower on average that the correlations of randomly paired dyads. Since these findings failed to support the idea of similarity, Winch argued that they supported Complementarity theory. There have been several studies that have tried to replicate Winch's findings, but most research has failed to do so. For example, Bowerman & Day (1956) attempted to replicate Winch's findings of need Complementarity of married couples. Sixty college couples who were engaged or going steadily filled out the Edwards Personal Preference Scale. Results suggest a pattern of similarity rather than complementary. Another study also attempted to address Winch's theory of complementary needs by examining data from standardized psychological tests, to determine whether married couples are characterized by Complementarity of needs, as well as to determine whether there is a positive relationship between the degree of Complementarity and marital happiness (Blazer, 1963). Fifty married couples who were emotionally well-adjusted (i.e. neither partner had history of mental illness) completed the Wallace Marital Happiness Scale and Edwards Personal Preference Scale. Results do not support the complementary needs model, rather they suggest a pattern of similarity. In other words, people who have similar relative strengths on the same needs tend to marry (or become more similar during marriage) and there is a modest association between increasing similarity of need patterns and greater marital happiness. Some observers criticized Winch's theory of complementary needs citing that certain needs are included whereas others are excluded and with respect to whether needs are independent of each other. Also, the theory fails to explain what happens if needs are neither different in intensity nor in kind. By contrast, Murstein (1976) argued that many researchers did not examine Complementarity as Winch had intended. Because the studies that attempted to replicate Winch's findings failed to do so however, the theory of Complementarity has been largely discarded and therefore little research has been conducted in an effort to examine this point. 3. Similarity Theorists have suggested that, in general, similarity in social characteristic and value should enable spouses to understand and reward each other more easily and should therefore be positively associated with satisfaction in the marital relationship. There is considerable evidence that members of engaged couples tend to be very similar on a variety of social characteristics such as physical appearance, physical health, educational level, religion, social participation, drinking and smoking habits, etc. (Berscheid & Walster, 1978); Burgess and Wallin, 1943; Murstein, 1971). There has been argued that "like may marry like" primarily because similarity increases the probability that two individuals will meet and get to know one another (Kerchoff & Davis, 1962). There is also evidence that similarity of attitudes leads to general feelings of attraction (Berscheid & Walster, 1978; Byrne, 1961) and that values of members of engaged and dating couples are more highly correlated than values of contrived couples (Murstein, 1967; 1971). However, research findings on the relationship between marital quality and similarity in spouses' personality characteristics are inconsistent. Some researchers have found positive correlations between marital satisfaction and personality similarity (Cattell & Nesselrode, 1967; Corsini, 1956; Hurley & Silvert, 1966; Kotlar, 1965; Pickford, Signori & Rempel, 1966) while others have found that personality similarity is significantly related only to the husband's marital satisfaction, not to the wife's (Murstein & Beck, 1972; Stuckert, 1963). Dymond (1954) found that unhappy couples were significantly less similar in personality that were happy couples but that the overall correlation between similarity and marital happiness was not significant. Murstein (1961) found support for the association of personality similarity and marital satisfaction for couples married at least tow years, but not for newlyweds. Finally, Preston, Peltz, Mudd & Proschler (1952) found no relationship between personality similarity and marital satisfaction. Interpretation of these results is difficult for several reasons: (1) different measures of personality characteristics were used in each study; (2) marital adjustment was defined and measured in a number of different ways; and (3) samples were not comparable in length of time couple has been married. Despite these methodological differences, the inconsistent findings and the wide range of positive correlation coefficients between marital satisfaction and similarity on specific "traits" on various personality tests suggest that the relationship between personality similarity and marital satisfaction is a complex and indirect one in which the effects of similarity may vary depending on the particular trait being measured. The studies conducted into similarity and marital relationship has tested both the assumptions of 'birds of a feather flock together' and 'opposite attracts', and have favored the similarity. In many cases we find that people having similarity on a variety of variables (i.e. demographics, attitudes, personality) tend to have a higher level of attraction (Newcomb, 1954; Byrne, 1971), from closer relationships, and even more higher levels of satisfaction (e.g. Bentler & Newcomb, 1978) than those who complement each other. The main focus of early research was primarily on attraction during the acquaintance process. Whereas there were some alternative viewpoints, the research strongly supported the idea of similarity. However, the utility of the early attraction literature was limited because it assessed attraction to stranger and was not necessarily applicable to actual relationships. Researchers began investigating these prior findings to see if, in fact, those in relationships prefer similarity in their friends and romantic partners to the same degree as previous results suggested. 4. Similarity: Strangers and Hypothetical Others Newcomb (1954) conducted research with previously unacquainted participants in order to better understand the development of stable interpersonal relationships. Over a period of one semester, strangers lived together and periodically completed questionnaires about their own attitudes and liking for the other participants. Results suggested that the stronger the individual's attraction to another individual, the greater likelihood that two people perceived agreement concerning objects that are important and relevant. These and several other subsequent studies conducted by Newcomb led to his development of the AB-X model of cognitive behavior. It implies that attitudinal agreement between two people (A and B) on some factor (X) will lead to attraction between A and B. Similarly A and B are attracted to each other and A perceives B as liking X, than A will feel compelled to like X as well. If A likes both B and X, then A will perceive B as liking X also. In a similar Vein, Curry & Kenny (1974) conducted a longitudinal study involving eight-person living arrangement. One goal of the study was to examine personality and values similarity and determine whether perceived similarity occurs more frequently that actual similarity. Participants rank-ordered Spranger's (1928) six values for themselves and then for each of their fellow group members. Spranger's values consist of six dimensions (Economics, Aesthetic, Theoretical, Social, Political, and Religious) that represent underlying motives. Personality was measured by an abbreviated form of the Edward's Personal Preference Scale (1954). Findings showed an increase in perceived value similarity as well as perceived personality similarity over the eight week period. Additional findings indicated that perceived similarity is always greater than actual similarity in both domains. In an effort to expand upon Newcomb's work, Byrne (1971) conducted numerous studies examining the relationship between attitude similarity and attraction. In an initial study participants were asked to complete a 26-item attitude scale and then placed into either one of four experimental groups: (a) exposed to a stranger who agreed with them on all 26 items, (b) exposed to a stranger who disagreed with them on all 26 items, (c) exposed to a stranger who agreed on the 13 most important and disagreed on 13 least important, or (d) exposed to a stranger who disagreed on the 13 most important and agreed on the 13 least important. These strangers were hypothetical but the participants were led to believe they were real. Experimenters manipulated the extent to which each stranger would appear to be similar to the participants. Participants then indicated their attraction towards the stranger using a standardized scale. Results indicated that a higher level of similarity leads to a higher level of attraction. In subsequent studies, after completing the attitude scale, the participants were exposed to a hypothetical others who had a proportion of attitudes similar to them. The proportions were 100%, 67%, 50% and 33%. These results showed that the participants were not responding to a specific number of similar attitudes, but rather the proportion of similar attitudes. These early studies along with numerous other that followed suggested that attraction is a linear function of proportion of weighted positive effects. Byrne proposed that this equation would not be limited to similarity and attraction but is generalized to any stimulus that elicits an affective response. 5. Similarity: Actual Relationship Pairs 5.1 Attitude Similarity Most of the research that examines similarity of attitudes has been confined to the assessment of attraction (e.g. Byrne, 1971; Newcomb, 1954). The basic paradigm of these studies involves a factious stranger that the participant never meets and assesses the impact of similarity on attraction to the stranger by manipulating the degree of similarity. In other words, these are controlled laboratory experiments that do not include real people involved in an actual relationship. Compared to the abundance of literature on attitude similarity and attraction for hypothetical others, there is relatively little that examines the role of attitude similarity in on-going relationships. However, a few studies have examined attitude similarity within actual relationship pairs. For example, Byrne and Blaylock (1963) found similar results for married couples. There was a significant amount of similarity for 36 couples on measures of political attitudes. These results suggest that for both friendships and romantic relationships, attitudinal similarity is present in relationships. The results of one study emphasized the limitations of the laboratory paradigm for assessing similarity and attraction. Buunk and Bosman (1986) examined on-going relationships and similarity on a highly salient attitude. Specifically, 69 married couples, where both partners had engaged in an extramarital affair, answered a questionnaire that elicited four attitudes towards extramarital sexual relations. Each partner answered the same questions twice, once in regard to the husband's affair and once for the wife's affair. Results showed that only one of four attitude correlations for actual similarity were significant, thus leaving the generalizability of attraction and similarity in the lab to real life relationships in question. Other studies have also found results that differ those found in the manipulated lab studies. McCarthy Duck (1976) examined three groups of dyads: established friends (those who had been friends for more than 6 months), tentative friends (those who had been friends 6 months or less) and strangers. Each participant was asked to complete a 20-item checklist, and then was given a checklist that they were led to believe was from either their friend or a stranger. Upon receiving the checklist, participants then indicated the degree of attraction towards the other. Findings indicated that although both the stranger and established friend groups were more attracted to the similar other, the tentative friend group preferred dissimilar partners. Examining this finding further, the tentative group was divided into early tentative (1-3 months) and late tentative (4-6 months). Established friends remained the same and the stranger group was eliminated. Again, the results for the established friends indicated a preference for similarly whereas the tentative friends preferred dissimilarity. More specifically, early tentative showed a preference for mild dissimilarity and late friends preferred a higher degree of dissimilarity. Therefore, the previously mentioned 'linear relationship' of the "attraction paradigm" may not accurately characterize real life relationships experienced over time. A study that analyzed romantically attached couples reported similar results (Duyssen & Teske, 1993). Twenty-two couples completed a questionnaire about attitudes that could be considered controversial in a relationship. First they rated the attitudes and then ranked them in order of priority. The relationship Closeness Scale was used as the dependent measure. The majority of the couples showed a high degree of similarity to one another. However, further analyses found that the more dissimilar couples were with respect to the top five ranked attitudes, the closer they rated themselves to be. Therefore, it seems that some degree of dissimilarity or friction may be beneficial in emotional relationships. Whereas the association between attitude similarity and attraction seems to be positive and linear in the early lab studies, studies involving relationship partners do not always reflect this association. Even though attitude similarity is more frequent in reciprocated relationship partners than in non-reciprocated relationship, there is evidence that dissimilarity of partners is sometimes preferred. For established friendships, similarity is preferred, but for friendships in the early stages, the preference was for dissimilarity. Also for couples, dissimilarity of the most important attitudes was positively related to relationship closeness. Perhaps in the process of relationship formation the association between similarity and attraction is not as linear as once believed. 5.2 Value Similarity Rokeach (1960) provided a theoretical framework relating interpersonal attraction to similarity at the values level. He claimed that categorization of people based on the congruency or incongruency of their beliefs to our own is more important in determining relationships than categorizing based on other variables such as race or ethnicity. Rokeach divided values into two groups, instrumental and terminal. Instrumental values are those that guide conduct, leading an individual to choose appropriate behaviors that are socially and personally acceptable (e.g. honest, cheerful, forgiving). Terminal values are considered to be end-stages of existence and are something to strive for (e.g. independent, salvation, mature love). Instrumental and terminal values are related. Rokeach postulated that everyone is concerned with the same values; it is the order in which they are organized that is associated with different behavior among individual in the same situation. The Rokeach Value Survey (RVS; Rokeach, 1973) lists the instrumental values and terminal values separately and asks participants to rank each list in order of importance with respect to the guiding principles in their own lives. Curiously, having such a strong theoretical framework as well as agreement among theorists for the role of value similarity in interpersonal attraction, there have been relatively few studies examining value similarity in relationships. Furthermore, various measures have been used with a variety of sample. Not surprisingly then, inconsistencies can be found with regard to results. For example, in the examination of friendships, Reilly, Commins and Stefic (1960) found that friends were not significantly similar on values as measured by the Study of Values (SV; Allport, Vermon & Lindzey, 1951). Allport, et al. (1951) adopted Spranger's (1928) concept of value types and developed the Study of Values (SV). This instrument was developed to ascertain the degree to which an individual actually subscribes to each of these values orientation. Lea and Duck (1982) also used the SV and found friendships of varying lengths tend to be more similar that random pairs. Marsden (1966) suggested that perhaps the SV was not assessing what is considered to be important in a friendship. Using the friendship values inventory as well general inventory, it was found that friends showed no more similarity that did randomly paired individuals on either measure. However, Marsden provided no evidence of reliability or validity to indicate that the scales used were in fact adequate measure of values. With respect to roommates, Hill and Stull (1982) found that female pairs who chose to live together were more similar on the SV than roommates who had been assigned to live together. They also found that female students who shared values were more likely to like their roommates during the following semester. The results for male respondents were not significantly different from zero. 5.3 Actual vs. Perceived Similarity There have been several investigations into differences between actual similarities and perceived (assumed) similarity among dyads. Actual similarity refers to the congruence between partners' beliefs and perceived similarity is the congruence between an individual's beliefs and perceptions of his or her partners' beliefs on the same issues. Comparisons of similarities have led researchers to suggest that perceived similarities are more prevalent than actual similarities and can be beneficial to a relationship. For example, Byrne & Blaylock (1963) found for 36 married couples, assumed similarity on political attitudes was significantly greater than actual similarity. Rhodes (1994) assessed couples prior to marriage and again one year into marriage. He found that actual similarity of attitude and beliefs were unrelated to marital satisfaction but perceived similarity was significantly and positively related to marital satisfaction one year into the marriage. 6. Similarity and Satisfaction Researchers believe that similarity is important to marital satisfaction (e.g. Dymond, 1954; Levinger and Breedlove, 1966). However, the similarity literature has mostly focused on attraction, rather than satisfaction. Examining the empirical research on value similarity, results are scattered and inconclusive. Reasons for this may include the fewer studies of value similarity and difference among methodologies used. Theorists of marital adjustment emphasize the importance of shared values between partners and its effects on the relationship (Klemer & Smith, 1975). It is believed that value consensus is necessary for a successful marriage (Fishbein & Burgess, 1963). The empirical literature generally supports this expectation. The first study that examined value similarity and its assocaiton with marital satisfaction had participants read value profiles for hypothetical couples (Kindelan and McCarrey, 1979). These profiles were constructed using the Rokeach Value Survey (RVS) and the degree of similarity for couples was set at 22%, 50% and 77% agreements. After examining the value profiles, participants were instructed to rate them on marital adjustment. A positive association between the two variables was found, suggesting that similarity of values was related to perceived marital satisfaction. Two further studies found a positive relationship between actual value similarity and marital satisfaction, but used different measures that the previous studies. Acitelli, Kenny and Weiner (2001) used a set of eleven values based on Farber's (1957) measure of marital integration. These 11 values were considered to be important in a marriage (i.e. having enough money, talking about important things etc.) and participants responded using a Likert-point scale followed by ranking the values. Not only was similarity of values related to marital satisfaction, but married couples showed more similarity than dating couples, and within the married couple only, longer relationships were associated with greater similarity. A quite recent study conducted by Conzaga, Campos and Bradbury (2007) have demonstrated that emotion similarity mediated the association between personality similarity and relationship quality. It further proved that emotion convergence mediated the association between personality convergence and relationship satisfaction. In this study Conzaga et al. (2007) arranged two studies of a laboratory interaction from a cross-sectional sample of dating couples and a 1-year longitudinal study of newlywed married couples. In the first study a sample of 66 dating couples provided measures of personality and relationship quality while in the second study a sample of 172 newlywed couple completed measures of relationship satisfaction and personality and then interacted in a series of four videotaped interaction, rating their own emotions before and after each interaction. From this study, Gonzaga et. al. concluded that members of a couple would be similar in personality and emotional experience. However, owing to the limitation of this study (participants being college-age dating couples) they conducted a second study to assess personality and emotion as well as relationship satisfaction in a set of newlywed couple in order to allow them to replicate their findings of the first study. From the second study, the concluded that partners were similar in their personality and emotions, that personality and emotion similarity were significantly and positively correlated with relationship quality. 7. Suggestion for future research Although the research conducted on value similarity and attraction seems to provide evidence that values are indeed important, the research regarding value similarity and relationships thus far seems to focus on different elements for the process and yields inconsistent results. Inconsistent results may be attributed to differences in the measures used (e.g. SV, RVS, friendship value inventory), the methods used (e.g. rating, ranking, hypothetical persons) and the variety of samples (e.g. couples, roommates, friends and married couples). Also, most of these studies explore different aspects of similarity. Whereas most focus on actual similarity without including perceived similarity, some have only looked at perceived similarity. Thus, a comprehensive examination of values consensus that captures many different aspects of similarity across different types of relationships as well as its association with marital satisfaction is needed. References Acitelli, L.K, Kenney, D.A., Weiner, D. (2001). The importance of similarity and understanding of partners' marital ideals to relationship satisfaction. Personal Relationships, 8, 167-185. Allport, G.W., Vernon, P.E. & Lindzey, G. (1951). Study of Values, Revised Edition, Oxford, England: Houghton Mifflin. Blazer, J. 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